In this piece Satprem Maini speaks of how he came to Auroville and his 36 years of life engaging in pioneering architectural work there and throughout India.
Written May 2023
I am Satprem Maïni and was born in Algeria in 1959. I was trained in France as an Architect and also hold a Post Graduate Master of Earthen Architecture. My field of action was oriented towards humanitarian help and small-scale training in developing countries for several years. At that time, I had already worked in 12 countries and among them in Egypt, in the slums of Cairo with Sister Emmanuelle. But my quest was unsatisfactory and imperfect, as the main dimension was missing, namely Spirituality.
While conducting a training course at New Delhi in May 1989, I heard of Auroville and Sri Aurobindo. Thus, I visited the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo at Pondicherry and Auroville where I spent only 2 or 3 days, at the end of May 1989. This introduction to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother was a revelation. I found the place that my soul was looking for. At the same time, I was offered a very good and well-paid job in Europe, but I preferred to refuse it and quit my life in France. I was back in Auroville on 31st August 1989 to live a spiritual life and build Auroville, based on the Galaxy concept.
I joined Auroville to live the Charter of Auroville, focusing more on the first and last points of the Charter – “To be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness” and to participate in the “material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity”.
From the teaching of Sri Aurobindo about Integral Yoga, what resonated the most for me was Karma Yoga, the work done as an offering to the Divine, as taught in the Bhagavad Gita, the “Path of Selfless Service”: “You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.” My way to approach the Divine was through selfless work, in the spirit of what the Mother wrote, “True spirituality lies in the service of the divine work.”
In 1989, with a grant from HUDCO, I founded the “Auroville Building Centre/ Earth Unit” which over the years became the “Auroville Earth Institute” (AVEI). One of the aims of AVEI is to give people the possibility to create and build their own habitat for themselves, while using earth technology. Since that time, my life has been dedicated to Auroville, India and the World for the recognition of our Mother Earth, while using its matter for sustainable development.
In 1991, I asked Champaklal, who was the oldest disciple in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at that time, what my actual name was. He gave me the Sanskrit name Satprem, meaning Truth and Love, replacing the given name Serge. Since then, my journey taught me that I related more to the “Lover of Truth”, rather than the “True Lover”.
By Satprem Maïni
Director Auroville Earth Institute